1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a drill template, and more particularly, to an adjustable drill template which can be configured to conform to a plurality of different hole patterns.
2. Background Information
In many industries, it is difficult to replace existing components with newer ones due to the difficulty in accurately aligning and drilling mounting holes in the newer component. This is especially true in the aerospace industry. In general, aerospace personnel have difficulty in properly aligning and drilling mounting holes in new components such as aircraft skins when replacing existing ones. For large production runs, special production tools may be designed to properly align and form the mounting holes on new components. However, these production tools can be expensive to design and build. Thus, for limited or small production runs, these production tools are cost prohibitive.
If production tools are cost prohibitive, mounting holes may be formed by back drilling. Back drilling is performed by laying an existing component over the new component. Mounting holes are then marked and drilled. However, back drilling is a slow process and is fairly inaccurate. Furthermore, many mounting holes are not accessible to back drilling due to the location of the mounting hole, the size/shape of the component, etc. If back drilling cannot be performed, mounting holes are generally laid out by hand and hand drilled using drill blocks or eggcups. This technique is a very slow and inaccurate process. Inaccurate drilling of mounting holes may lead to the scrapping of the component.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a drill template that overcomes the above problems. The drill template would be adjustable and could be configured to conform to a plurality of different hole patterns.